


Fluke

by PoisonJack



Series: Unthinkable [2]
Category: Borderlands, Tales from the Borderlands - Fandom
Genre: Alpha Jack, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, General au, Jack goes into indulgent spoiling alpha mode, Jack is a big old crybaby softie, M/M, Mentions of Vaughn lolol, Mpreg, Omega Rhys, Omegaverse, Rhysie gets weird cravings, a/b/o dynamics, also Rhys steals Jack's clothes for nesting purposes haha, and thus begins my descent into madness folks welcome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-21
Updated: 2016-04-21
Packaged: 2018-06-03 14:41:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6614632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PoisonJack/pseuds/PoisonJack
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to <i>Pattern</i> because the angst just hurt too many people to not wrap up nice and sugary sweet with happy endings :)</p>
<p>Jack helps Rhys undertake some experimental omega procedures to restore his fertility so he can have the alpha's kids. After it doesn't work, he puts a stop to things. He ends up thinking he's just getting fat and whiny some time after giving up all hope.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fluke

**Author's Note:**

> Well I destroyed so many people with _Pattern_ that I had to write a little happy sequel because you poor folk and your feels, sorry hahaha :) Have some closure xD
> 
> This is also on my tumblr [here](http://purge-that-urge-rhackathon.tumblr.com/post/143160909225/fluke).

Rhys didn’t think anything much of the lethargy and cravings. When _wasn’t_ he tired anymore? Especially with the way he was overworked in his department and everything he’d been through the last few months? And who wouldn’t want something sweet and salty to deal with it when the mood struck? Stress cravings were totally a thing. Comfort food, dammit.

He chalked the mood swings up to stress and asshole coworkers bugging him. _No one_ would be a ray of sunshine after sitting through meetings that consisted of a battle of egos, and if he got weepy sometimes, he figured it was due to being frustrated with morons around him. He wasn’t the first person on Helios let alone this department who felt that way. He was stress eating; that’s what it was. 

He never would have suspected that he was pregnant.

It was only about a week after Rhys had laid his fertility issues– or lack thereof- on the table that he approached Jack about the subject again. He wanted to air things between them proper, really let Jack understand and know.

That interaction had resulted in a very long talk between the two of them, more tears and kisses and hugs, and Jack proposed that they could try, at least, consulting Hyperion’s professionals. Rhys had jumped on the chance that the highly paid team of doctors and scientists and whoever else on Jack’s payroll might have the slightest chance to reverse things– restore his omega biology to working order. If there was even the tiniest hope something would work, he wanted to try.

The younger man got a series of physicals, blood work, interviews, tests, and a whole lot of analyzation where his person was concerned. There was an entire team comprised of omega-specialists from various departments at his disposal. And the omega ended up undergoing a series of experimental injections and minor invasive surgeries while Jack held his hand the entire time. 

Healing was fast; the little procedure having been successful if not a little new for the field as far as treatment was concerned. The injections became routine; once a week down in the pharmaceuticals branch with the CEO at his side and the lab head in front of him. Roll up his sleeve, shot in the arm, and then go about his day.

But after several months of the serums and no change whatsoever to his body biologically, Rhys had said no more. He was tired of his hopes being strung along, tired of being prodded and clinically poked. And after his recent heat– after an examination from his doctor told him what he already knew- he decided to call it quits. His heart couldn’t take it anymore. He was never going to be able to have the alpha’s kids. And he was tired of fooling himself otherwise.

Jack….was not as devastated as Rhys thought he would be when he timidly suggested to him that he wanted no more. Either that, or the CEO was extremely good at hiding his disappointment.

The alpha had simply taken the younger man up in his arms, kissed and held him, and said that he was proud that he’d tried and gone through everything anyways, and he was sorry for the omega that it was for naught. Rhys was upset, more than he realized as it hit him once again that he’d never fulfill that biological urge that ran deep in all omegas, and he’d sobbed a bit into Jack’s shirt, and they said no more on the subject.

So over a month later in which he was free of being prodded, free of injections, and free of those awful appointments and examinations, he just chalked up his moodiness and overeating to still processing everything and being psychologically exhausted. Not like it hadn’t happened before.

He was nauseous after dinner with Jack, and ended up hanging his head over the toilet bowl before eventually rejoining the CEO on the couch in front of the tv. He regretted his pre-dinner snack while Jack had cooked for them after work.

“I told you cheese and shrimp wasn’t smart,” the alpha said as he put an arm around the younger man.

“It sounded good at the time,” Rhys told him with regret, looking rather green. 

“I didn’t make that pot roast for you to throw it up,” Jack told him with a judgmental look. Rhys just rolled his eyes. “Especially for seafood from a burger place.”

“It was on the way over and convenient and– Okay let’s not talk about it anymore,” the omega told him with a sour look. Jack just laughed, and they watched some more tv before going to bed.

Rhys was sick again the next morning, and Jack again blamed the shrimp, and told him to see a doctor if he thought he had food poisoning. The younger man told him he didn’t think it was that bad, but that he definitely wasn’t done throwing up. He was okay about an hour later after a shower and some pancakes, and they went about their respective business for the day.

Rhys continued to eat things considered weird by not just Jack’s standards, and he continued to get sick, at which point Jack told him he needed to stop that shit and take some time off. And maybe a multivitamin for whatever mineral he was lacking that made him think olives and donuts went together. Stress did weird shit to people.

“It’s all just stress eating okay!” Rhys had whined when he refused to share ice cream with Jack. “I’m stressed out and it makes me feel better…”

“That’s why I said you need to take some time off, sugar.” The older man eyed the ice cream Rhys so zealously guarded, and the younger man dared him with a look to try to take any. “You’ve got vacation time, not to mention I’m bossman and what I say goes. And I’m also tired of you defiling my bathroom.”

“Defi– _oooh_ I’m not even gonna touch on that,” Rhys told him petulantly. 

The alpha just snorted. “Rest, pumpkin. Don’t eat anymore weird shit from cheap restaurants and let me relax you some, hm?” His hand slid over Rhys’, and the omega blocked his attempt to steal the ice cream spoon.

“Nice try. Get your own.”

“That’s a whole carton, kitten.”

“I know what I said,” he replied defiantly as he put the spoon in his mouth. Jack just smirked and stole it the very second the omega wasn’t looking.

–

It was a week after the initial shrimp incident that Jack asked the younger man if he’d switched colognes. He liked it, sticking his nose flat against Rhys’ neck, but the omega claimed nothing was different. He didn’t discourage Jack’s roving hands though, or his lips tracing over every bit of flesh he could latch onto without stripping the younger man.

When Rhys was still sick after a week, and he knew it wasn’t the stuff he’d been snacking on, he made an appointment to see if he had a nasty case of the stomach flu that had been going around his department. He didn’t have a fever or other symptoms for the bug, and the doctor ordered up a few tests for the younger man and sent him on his way after a blood and urine sample were taken to rule out the worst. His drastic weight gain concerned the doctor, and she also referred him to a psychiatrist for his stress and worries. “Talking will help,” she’d said. Well, he’d consider it.

He got the call for his test results a few days later while he was at his desk, and what she’d told him and confirmed beyond a doubt had made him faint right there.

No one had ever seen Handsome Jack run from a meeting before like the devil was on his heels. Usually it was the other way around, and there was a lot more screaming and sometimes blood. But a flurry of papers and spilled coffees wasn’t the norm.

Rhys’ friend– the one with glasses that Jack could never remember the name of- had called him from Rhys’ own comm saying that the omega had fainted- twice- and he’d asked for Jack between episodes. And that was how the alpha was found to be running like a bat out of hell through departments and down stairs, knocking over interns and employees alike to get to the younger man. 

The omega was resting when Jack got there, the alpha all sweaty and pumped full of adrenaline. He barked an order at everyone to get out of the first aid room where they’d taken the younger man. He was lying on a cot with a standard issue Hyperion blanket over him, curled in on himself slumbering. The alpha gently roused him, mind figuring all sorts of scenarios for the younger man’s condition; mainly concerning questionable shrimp and if he’d seriously fucked up his inner organs or something. 

“Rhysie… Sweetheart…” The omega opened his eyes and blinked slowly a few times as he smiled at the alpha. “What happened? That little nerd said you called for me. Are you okay? _What happened_?”

Tears came to the younger man’s eyes, glad he was laying down this time, and Jack inhaled with a growl at the state of his omega. 

“ _Did someone do something to you_?”

Rhys’ smile just grew. “Jack I’m…. I’m pregnant.”

The alpha watched him blankly for a solid thirty seconds, the anger slowly bleeding out of him. The silence seemed to stretch into an eternity as Jack said nothing. No one had ever rendered Handsome Jack speechless before.

“Jack say something.”

The alpha was still watching him with bewilderment, his brain still trying to process what the younger man had told him. “What…. What’re you… You…”

Rhys grinned and slid his hand over Jack’s. The alpha jumped and the younger man just laughed as silent tears streaked down his face, meeting the older man’s eyes. “I thought I was just getting fat and whiny…”

“You… You’re… You’re…”

Rhys squeezed the CEO’s hand. He’d broken the older man. “ _We’re gonna have a_ baby _, Jack_.”

The alpha’s hand finally closed on the omega’s as it seemed the realization of what he’d just been told had actually processed. His blank expression morphed into one of the widest grins Rhys had ever seen, and the alpha was suddenly all over the younger man with care.

Jack was all hands and lips, kissing the omega everywhere and touching gently, smiles and praise and wonder and pleasure. Rhys had never seen Jack so happy. The alpha could hardly contain himself, having to verify several times over the course of an hour if he was sure, absolutely sure. It just made Rhys laugh, and the alpha wouldn’t stop cuddling and kissing and nuzzling him until Rhys asked if they could please get out of there because he sure as hell wasn’t going back to work.

The next day Jack had personally gone with Rhys back to the doctor who had done his tests, the woman absolutely astonished that Handsome Jack was in her clinic. She verified that it was true, one of the things they routinely ran on omegas who came in sick and got blood tests, and wanted to know if they’d like a referral to an obstetrician.

Jack had scoffed at the offer and Rhys had given him a look at that to be nice, but the alpha _did_ have all those doctors and scientists on the payroll that should know what the hell was up and what had happened within the omega that this was even possible. Rhys himself was eager and anxious to know. So he politely declined her referral with a statement that they had their own doctor, but thank you very much. 

She congratulated them both and they left, Jack keeping close on Rhys with smiles and touches.

They saw another round of doctors after that and Jack had snarled at every single one to be careful or they’d have a one-way ticket out the air lock. The alpha was protective as hell, growling and noisy and authoritative as Rhys had blood drawn and a few safe but invasive exams. He pet the omega through all of it, even as he snarled at the scientists to treat the younger man like glass. Rhys didn’t like the epithet, but he appreciated the thought.

The omega was antsy, scared to death of the possibility of losing it– his one chance to have a baby. Excitement had given way to suspicion and distrust, wondering if it was really true; if he could really have a child, or if it was all a misunderstanding and a lie.

He was given a clean state of health, a report that though it was early to say, his body seemed to have restored some of the damaged parts and the treatment had worked. Rhys was anxious that it might reverse, that his body would reject it, that any number of things would go wrong since the treatment was experimental and they couldn’t really know. 

But the head doctor from one of the labs reassured the younger man that he was really strong and completely normal, that it had worked, he had a powerful immune system and his health was good, and to please take care of himself. Rhys was still uncertain but Jack was beside himself for the younger man.

Jack clung to his omega every night, and he absolutely pampered him in every way possible. Rhys was in heaven with the treatment and all the cuddles and tenderness that was brought out of the older man. Jack recognized that Rhys’ scent was slightly different because he was smelling their child on him. That’s what the scent change meant; not some fancy new cologne that the alpha was pleasantly drawn to. It was his progeny he was smelling; his offspring and his omega. The idea completely floored the alpha. 

It was about eight weeks in that Rhys started to snap at Jack’s pampering and care; all the spoiling the older man was doing. Jack must have been drawing from some previously hidden well of patience because he didn’t snap back, but rather indulged Rhys’ affirmations of “I can get my own damn orange juice” or “I can draw my own damn bath”. The alpha left him to it until he’d simmered down, and then took up his spoiling again.

A particularly bad outburst occurred over Jack’s offer to cuddle him and give him a massage. Rhys had burst into tears when he’d demanded the older man to stop pampering him and treating him special. There must have been something in the omega’s scent that kept the alpha from rising to the bait, some hormone or something bringing out the best in the man, because Jack just pet and soothed and held him while he asked what was wrong because surely the younger man wasn’t pissed off over the offer of a foot rub. 

Rhys had to admit to the older man that he was scared of allowing himself to be excited over the pregnancy. That he didn’t want himself to love it because what if he lost it? What if it was all for naught? If he was a normal omega, if all his parts were in working order from the start, then losing it wouldn’t necessarily mean the end. But he _wasn’t_ like other omegas. This might be it for him.

They still weren’t out of the danger period for when normal omegas might lose a pregnancy just due to natural causes. There was another month to go before that fear was gone at least. What if he lost it? What if he never had another chance? What if what if what if…? He felt guilt with every coffee and snuggle and back rub the alpha gave him, and he couldn’t take it anymore, the feeling eating him alive.

Jack put a stop to that. Told him that those feelings couldn’t be good for the life inside him, and to give the thing a chance. He told him that between his badassery and Rhys’ own innate stubbornness that it would cling on whether he wanted it to or not, so to stop worrying. 

The CEO had to reaffirm several times that if the unthinkable were to happen, and he was never able to conceive again, that he would remain by the omega’s side regardless. Rhys laughed through his tears when Jack told him there was nowhere in the galaxy he could go to be rid of the older man. That he could never get rid of Jack even if he wanted. Rhys shook his head with a teary smile and called him a creep, but he reveled in the alpha’s words. He stopped fighting Jack’s tender care after that, and let himself begin to believe that everything would work out okay.

As Rhys got bigger and his gait became more of a waddle than a walk, Jack still kept at his heels like a watchful, lovesick puppy. He didn’t like the younger man leaving the penthouse if he could help it, remotely getting most of his work done, but when he did, the alpha was never far behind. Rhys practically had him wrapped around his little pinky, and they were both aware of it. 

Whatever his omega needed, Jack was at the ready. Bubblegum and pickles? Got it. Foot rub? No problem. Full body tongue bath? With pleasure. There was nothing the alpha didn’t want to do for his glowing mate. And when Rhys would settle comfortably into the cushions after dinner and a bath, Jack would lay his ear to the omega’s belly and stroke the taut skin with large, warm hands while he spoke to the life inside. It gave Rhys hope.

Jack poked fun at the younger man when he started finding his clothes in their bed. Rhys squirreled away anything that the older man’s scent clung to, and was secretly building himself a nest under the covers on his side of Jack’s large bed. It brought him comfort when the CEO absolutely had to leave the apartment, and it increased his feeling of security and well-being. 

When Rhys was bigger than Helios and ready to pop– bitching and whining and complaining about how he’d never signed up for growing larger than the space station- they scheduled a surgery date to bring the new life into the world. 

–

After Rhys came out of anesthesia somewhat doped up, and was popped full of some things that would dramatically increase his recovery and frighteningly-quickly mend his incisions, he was greeted by the sight of Jack holding something innocent and tiny in his arms right next to his bedside. The alpha hadn’t moved from the spot since they’d patched the omega back up, and with the meds wearing off, the younger man fully realized just what it was he was looking at.

Rhys stared dumbfounded up at the alpha while Jack stared down, completely in love with the bundle in his arms. His eyes were full of unshed tears, and the picture made Rhys smirk as the alpha brought the tiny mass of flesh down to the omega’s arms. 

“She’s beautiful… Absolutely perfect in every way,” Jack whispered, handing the bundle to Rhys. Once the newborn had been passed, Jack kept hands on the omega, fingers kneading at his thigh, and face twitching. The omega gazed in awe, completely shocked that this was something they’d created; that he’d managed to do something he thought impossible. He just couldn’t believe it.

The omega looked between Jack and the baby, and he smirked up at the older man as he caught his eyes staring at the sleeping face in Rhys’ arms. “I was the one in surgery, Jack. I should be crying,” he pointed out to the alpha with a lot more teasing than was necessary.

“I'm not crying,” Jack told him adamantly, tears threatening to drop as he grinned widely down at his little family. He pulled a chair next to the bed and budged it next to the omega so he could lean his face closer and stare at their baby. His eyebrows continually twitched as he changed between smiles and awe, tears threatening to spill.

“You are,” Rhys said again, surprised by how in control he felt, how sure and confident for the first time in ages. The trusting face of the newborn in sleep was everything Rhys had ever wanted. He understood Jack’s emotions exactly, but it still hadn’t hit him yet that this little life was theirs. 

“I’m not.”

“It’s okay to cry, Jack. She’s beautiful,” Rhys purred with a look at the baby’s sleeping face again. Jack nuzzled closer on the omega, quietly watching as the tiny life in Rhys’ arms breathed and slept. “Can you believe we made this?”

That was finally enough to actually make Jack cry, and the omega ignored the sounds as Jack was embarrassed as hell but far too pleased to leave the two even for a second to compose himself. Rhys just stroked the hand Jack had on him with his free one, his attention on the weight of the newborn in his arms and the weight of his alpha at his side. 

Rhys finally joined in with Jack’s blubbering as the entirety of the situation hit him like a truck. The two were complete sobbing messes of tears and grins and kisses between them. 

The newborn didn’t manage to sleep through that racket for long, and the three cried happy (and cranky) tears together as a family.

**Author's Note:**

> And since she's their little miracle baby they call her Angel and blah blah blah heavy-handed happy family ending bahahah :)
> 
> Join me in rhack hell for more fic and bitchin art reblogs lolol  
> <http://purge-that-urge-rhackathon.tumblr.com>


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